Boyfriend Gets Life in Prison Five Years After Shooting Pregnant Partner 11 Times in 'Heinous Crime'

Convicted murderer Justin Smith has been sentenced to mandatory life imprisonment without parole, closing a harrowing chapter in a high-profile Philadelphia homicide case that triggered a four-year national manhunt.

Judge Anthony Kyriakakis handed down the maximum penalty alongside a consecutive 40 to 80 years for related offences, including arson, evidence tampering, and corpse abuse.

Smith, now 28, was convicted of shooting his 14-week-pregnant girlfriend, 21-year-old Dianna Brice, 11 times in the head on 30 March 2021.

Brice's body was subsequently wrapped in rubbish bags and abandoned in a desolate southwest Philadelphia lot with the assistance of an accomplice.

The gruesome discovery sparked an exhaustive multi-state investigation led by local detectives and federal marshals, culminating in Smith's capture during a routine traffic stop in Atlanta in March 2025.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner denounced the calculated execution as a 'heinous crime', while grieving family members reflected on enduring years of anguish.

As legal proceedings formally conclude, the landmark sentencing brings long-awaited accountability to a tragedy that devastated a young mother and her family.

Dianna Brice Initially Reported as Missing

On 30 March 2021, Brice was reported missing after she was last seen leaving a laundromat in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, with Smith. Six days later, investigators found the pregnant woman's body wrapped in garbage bags in a pile of debris at an abandoned lot in southwest Philadelphia.

Prosecutors allege that Brice had been killed inside Smith's car somewhere between University City and Kensington. Investigators were able to trace Brice and Smith's movements to a garage in Kensington using mobile phone records.

According to the prosecution, Smith sought the help of his friend, Tylydia Garnett, to help dispose of Brice's body. Surveillance footage supported this claim when Smith and Garnett were seen loading a heavy object into the back of the latter's car. Investigators were also able to find Brice's blood in the boot of the same vehicle.

Garnett had also gone to a Sunoco petrol station and purchased a canister of petrol before returning to the garage, according to the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. The pair later transported Brice's body to the 5800 block of Eastwick Avenue, where it was abandoned.

A Four-Year Manhunt and a Family Seeking Justice

Prosecutors alleged Smith eventually travelled to Cobbs Creek and set his own car ablaze to attempt to destroy evidence. Investigators subsequently found spent cartridge casings from the scorched car, with one matching a casing found in Brice's clothing.

According to prosecutors, Smith and Garnett travelled to Miami after disposing of Brice's body. An arrest warrant was issued for Smith in April 2021, and he remained wanted for almost four years until the FBI offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. He was arrested in Atlanta on 8 March 2025, after Atlanta police stopped his vehicle.

Justin Smith was ultimately sentenced by Judge Kyriakakis to mandatory life imprisonment without parole, followed by a consecutive 40 to 80 years. The jury also convicted him of arson, conspiracy to commit arson, possessing a prohibited firearm, carrying a firearm without a licence, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse.

Following Smith's conviction, Brice's mother, Betty Cellini, stated, 'I can't believe that it has been five years since he took my daughter and my unborn grandchild and left my grandson, who was four at the time, without a mother.'

Prosecutors and police officials from the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office were widely commended for refusing to close the file on a fugitive who assumed he had escaped justice.

'We'd like to thank the prosecutors, the police and the investigators who never let this case go and fought for Dianna and our family. I will never ever forgive this man for what he did to my daughter, my unborn grandson,' she added. The conclusion provides a measure of closure to a community shaken by domestic violence.